straitjacket
or straight·jack·et
a garment made of strong material and designed to bind the arms, as of a violently disoriented person.
anything that severely confines, constricts, or hinders: Conventional attitudes can be a straitjacket, preventing original thinking.
to put in or as in a straitjacket: Her ambition was straitjacketed by her family.
Origin of straitjacket
1Words Nearby straitjacket
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use straitjacket in a sentence
Past precedent is important and instructive, but it shouldn’t be a straitjacket.
America's Cities Are in Crisis. They Should be Allowed to Raise Debt to Save Themselves | Zachary Karabell | February 11, 2021 | TimeBut the very decision to sell songs to targeted genre fans has turned into an aesthetic straitjacket.
Five Lessons the Faltering Music Industry Could Learn From TV | Ted Gioia | August 3, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTWhat matters now for Rowhani is whether he can get anything done within the straitjacket imposed by Khamenei.
But they are struggling to overcome the ideological straitjacket that has become the U.S. Congress.
America’s Catholic Moment, and Its New Breed of Catholic Politicians | Michael Sean Winters | March 19, 2013 | THE DAILY BEAST“I hope that the visit and U.S. engagement will put the generals in a straitjacket,” said Aung Zaw.
Obama Does Delicate Dance on Historic Visit to Burma | Lennox Samuels | November 19, 2012 | THE DAILY BEAST
It was, almost literally, a political straitjacket for President Obama.
His arms were inserted in the long, closed sleeves of the straitjacket.
The Adventurous Life of a Versatile Artist: Houdini | Harry HoudiniThe next minute he was pinned, handcuffed, and in a straitjacket, after crippling one assailant with a kick on the knee.
Hard Cash | Charles ReadeI always thought him sane enough until today, but you can take it from me that either he or I ought to be in a straitjacket.
The Hound of the Baskervilles | A. Conan DoyleThe straitjacket which German idealism has provided is certainly far too narrow even for the varieties of human imagination.
Character and Opinion in the United States | David Goodger (goodger@python.org)His first move was to take the straitjacket in his own hands and order me to stand.
A Mind That Found Itself | Clifford Whittingham Beers
British Dictionary definitions for straitjacket
/ (ˈstreɪtˌdʒækɪt) /
Also called: straightjacket a jacket made of strong canvas material with long sleeves for binding the arms of violent prisoners or mentally ill patients
a severe restriction or limitation
(tr) to confine in or as if in a straitjacket
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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